Drunken_Master wrote:At a technical level perhaps? 60fps @ 720P with an unprecedented level of detail. ID really are GODs when it comes to 3d engines.
Yes, this is the key to understanding RAGE's critical plaudits. John Carmack is a very, very respected figure in the industry (for very good reason) and his work on idTech5 is quite simply stunning. id are still one of the few developers at the very cutting edge of game technology; their in-house-developed games have always been nothing less than giant advertisements for their bespoke game engines, and RAGE is no exception - it's a giant billboard to announce to potential licensees that
idTech5 is pretty f*cking amazing!
Doom3 was the same. At least, that was idea. In the end, that plan didn't work out - idTech4 got closed out by both Valve's Source Engine and, more devastatingly, Epic's Unreal3 Engine. Carmack's engine was still a wonder back in 2004, but the big bucks went to Epic and third party engine licensing has been languishing there pretty much ever since.
Time will tell if idTech5 is fated to suffer the same ignominious indifference as that which befell its forebear. Epic are so on their game these days, it's going to be an uphill battle to try and wean developers off their Unreal3 habits - when the majority of your staff have spent the past four years working with a particular engine tech it's a big ask to get them up to speed on a new engine with deadlines looming, no matter how gorgeous-looking that game engine might be.
Me? I'm just looking forward to RAGE. Just looks amazing. I love the fact that Tim Willets of id (a personal hero of mine for the artistic lead he took on Doom3) is talking up the predominantly FPS-based elements of the game, rather than the more incidental driving aspects. He wants the faithful to know (and be reassured) that id are doing what they've always done best: have gun, will shoot. In some of the lushest visual environments you'll find in any game this generation.
All this, and Doom4 still to come.